USS Grebe (AM-43)-- Part 1: World War I Mines in the North Sea

In my Not So Forgotten:  War of 1812 blog, I recently wrote about the USS Grebe, which towed and served as the tender for the famed War of 1812 warship, USS Constitution on its 1931-1932 National Cruise to U.S.ports after it was restored.

I looked the ship up in Wikipedia and found this ship had quite an interesting and varied history.

USS GREBE

It was 187-foot long Lapwing-class minesweeper launched 17 December 1918 and served in many capacities until destroyed by a hurricane in 1943.  It was commissioned 1 May 1919 and from July to October of that year, participated in the clearing of the North Sea mines from WW I.

From then until 1921, she did a variety of jobs, including rescuing 139 passengers from the SS Mormugao on April 29.  (The SS Mormugao was a Portuguese ship which ran ashore off Block Island, Rhode Island. Her passengers were taken off and the ship was refloated on May 2.)

--Cooter